Food Product Reviews: The Good, Great, and Superb!

Becha didn’t guess that this is the new food that Eric and I are currently obsessed with!!!

Yes, even health nuts like me eat chips!!! :D Surprised??

I was recently sent a box of President’s Choice ‘Tastes of Canada’ food products and these chips were in the box. When I read that they were BBQ Baby Back Rib flavoured chips, I said to Eric, ‘YOU will LOVE these’, and tossed him the bag.

Of course, not being a meat eater anymore, I thought I would hate these chips! But of course I had to try them, I mean how good of a food reviewer would I be if I didn’t even sample it? ;)

OH-MY-GOSH!

These chips are phenomenal!!!

Eric and I were instantly hooked. We never have chips in the house, but these were just so delicious. The bag lasted us almost 2 weeks! haha. We savoured every last chip and crumb and last night we fought over the bottom of the bag last night after dinner! ;)

I thought it was important to post this food product review so you know that not everything I eat is *the perfect health food*. So yes, sometimes I enjoy chips just like the next person! :) It’s a good thing we don’t keep them in the house or else we would get a serious addiction to these things! If you are ever looking for a fun new chip flavour to bring to a party or BBQ these are IT! You will be the talk of the town. Ok, maybe not, but they will be devoured.

Food product review #2:

Vega Whole Food Smoothie Infusion

I wanted to hate this smoothie infusion. I really, really did. I wanted to hate it and report to you all that it was gross! I’m not sure why. I think it is because I had a bad experience with another Vega powder a little while ago which resulted in me pouring my beloved GM down the drain. I have also heard some bad things about it floating around on the blogs. So I was expecting it to ruin my Green Monster this morning. That would have been such a shame, wouldn’t it?

But you know what? It wasn’t bad!! Not bad at all. Actually, compared to my Ruth’s Hemp-Maca-E3Live protein powder this stuff tasted like a DREAM. No bad aftertaste like the Ruth’s powder. I am happy to say that I will be finishing the rest of the samples that I got! :)

Each packet has 120 calories, 14 grams of protein, and 6 grams of fibre. Not too shabby! A great way to up the protein in a Green Monster.

I’m not sure if I would buy this on my own, because I certainly prefer Amazing Grass. But it was a nice change though and great for people who can’t access the Amazing Grass.

Food Product review #3:

Umm cherries, Ange? Are you cracking up?

Why of course not! That happened long ago! :D Actually, what I am reviewing here is a new fun ingredient in a green monster! I have been meaning to put cherries in my GM’s for a while now, and finally remembered today when a reader mentioned it in a submission!

By the way, this was GM #2 today! I just can’t get enough of them lately!

I also want to buy a cherry pitter, but that is another story!

I had it as a ‘fancy-smancy chilled-soup’ a la Kath in my purty green monster bowl from Ikea!

Food product review #4:

Coconut Oil…so many uses, so little time!!!

Today I put coconut oil in my green monster!

I used 1 Tablespoon. At just over 115 calories let me tell you, it was SO worth it!!!! My GM tasted like a tropical dream! I felt like I was in a tropical paradise. I kept thinking how awesome this GM would have been with either cantaloupe or pineapple. Next time! :)

So there you have it- two fun new ingredients to add to your GM! :)

Quick question for everyone: I am thinking about putting together a Green Monster cookbook filled with tons of reader’s most unique and delicious GM recipes. Would you guys be interested in purchasing one, if I sold one for $10 bucks for charity??? Please let me know. If I think it will get enough interest I may look at putting one together. It could be the first Green Monster Movement cookbook!! I can hardly contain this excitement!!!!!!!!!

Quick mention about Submitting your Green Monster’s: Many of you are having problems. This is most likely due to the fact that you need to shrink your image before uploading. It also won’t let you submit unless you have uploaded a picture. I hope this will help you. Let me know! If you still can’t please email your submissions to [email protected]

Food Product review #5:

I have had these Guiltless Gourmet chips before, but when I saw on the package ‘BOLDER taste’, I knew I had to test them out! :)

Voici le chip! Crunch, crunch, crunch.

I definitely noticed that the chip was much crisper and crunchier than I remembered. I think I like these better! They are a great chip for salsa dipping to because the chip doesn’t snap off!

The only thing I didn’t like about it is that once and a while I got a really salty chip, which probably wouldn’t bother many people, but I am just really sensitive to salt! All and all I rate these 8.5/10! I had mine with PC Organic Mild Salsa. Delicious.

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Ok, I am hungry now! lol. I am going to cook some dinner. :) No workout yet today. I will probably do some light walking and core work later on. I am really loving having the Summer Glow exercises every OTHER day instead of every day! I feel like I get a nice physical and mental break! It is so much better having a day off in between. Do you find this too???

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And because this morning’s question was SO fun:

Tonight’s question:

What health foods/products do you love that are CHEAP??? Come on pick your brains! I want to know some cheap healthy food ideas! Do they exist??

The ones I can think of are: bananas, Oats, rice, beans, wheat, etc. But there has to be more!!!

So how bout when I saw the first review I though it was a big bag of ribs, lol. I was like, “OMG never saw that one coming.”
As for the green monster cookbook. I don’t THINK I would purchase one since there’s a greenmonster page now.
Great Question! All I can think to add to your list is my cheap organic baby carrots. Can’t wait to see other’s ideas:)

I love the every other day too.
And yes yes yes I would buy a green monster book! I prefer a real book as opposed to an e-book though, im not sure what you were planning!
My favorite cheap health food would have to be ….oranges. okay they are not the cheapest thing in the world and i havent had them around for a while, but they are pretty darn cheap as far as produce goes.
-muffy

Cheap healthy foods:
– Fresh organic fruits and veggies at a farmer’s market – they are often not certified organic because it costs money, and they wouldn’t be able to sell their produce for such amazing low prices, but if you ask, a lot of the farmers use organic growing methods all the same -they’re just not certified.
– Bulk whole wheat pasta! I bought two pounds of it for $1.74 the other day!

The coconut oil sounds like it would be great in a GM. I’m a big fan of coconut milk ice cream and yogurt, so I’ll have to give it a try!

a GM cookbook is a FANTASTIC idea…i think it should be at EVERY bookstore in Canada and the US though lol, not something you just do on a small scale for charity…!!! get a fwd by Kris Carr and you’re set! :-D

I almost tried those chips at the Superstore the other day!! But they were also sampling peanut butter cookies, which I obviously went for instead ;) I’ll be sure to not turn them down next time…

I have that smoothie infusion too. My only issue with it is that it’s a touch “chalky” tasting. But honestly, it’s got amazing ingredients and stats compared to a lot of other protein powders out there – so I’ll take it!

Best cheap health food is eggs!!! You can get a dozen for a couple bucks and they’re full of natural protein :)

OMG, I went to Goodness Me tonight intending to buy that Vega smoothie infusion! Unfortunately they only had it in bags for $30 so it stayed on the shelf. I did pick up a container of Ruth’s organic hemp protein powder and got 2 sample packets of other protein poweders – one is a rice powder and the other is Vega health optimizer, or something like that. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that the Vega has probiotics in it (they upset my stomach…go figure) so the husband will be getting that one added to his GM tomorrow. Great idea to add cherries to your GM! I picked up a bag of organic ones tonight ($1.99/lb – what a steal!) so I’ll try to set some aside to try in my drink before I snarf them all down :)

I’m LOL’ing about the PC Chips. I went for groceries last week and came home with the same chips but in the FETA flavor. Oh. My. God. I, like you, can simply not have this kind of stuff in the house – but when we do….WATCH OUT! It reminded me so much of Greece where they have chips the same flavor. Sweet memories.

i definitely love beans for a cheap meal and they last all week. i make pinto beans with a vidalia onion and cajun seasoning; black beans with a can of rotel, a bell pepper, and cajun seasoning; and lima beans with a bell pepper and cajun seasoning. they are so cheap and super versatile.

and i definitely agree with you about the chips…CANNOT keep them around my house!

Trader Joe’s is amazing for cheap, healthy food. It’s where I get stuff like bananas (19 cents each!! love it!), baby spinach (for GMs), oatmeal, whole-wheat pasta, nuts like walnuts and almonds…and a few treats, like their frozen chocolate croissants, which are to die for!

for me, it’s more of a matter of finding the good stuff on sale. I’m crazy about couponing. This week, I got organic soy milk for $0.25. It was on sale for $2.50, and I had a $2.25 off. A few weeks ago, Oikos yogurts were 50% off, so they were $1. I had coupons for $0.50 off, and my store doubles those, so they were free! I had a fridge full!

I loooove microwave popcorn. To avoid all those chemicals and make it a very cheap and healthy snack, I just put popcorn kernels in a brown paper bag, roll the top over a few times and put it in the microwave. Works like a charm!

I seriously thought you were eating ribs! My heart almost stopped! hahahahaha
Fav. cheap foods: sweet potatoes, carrots and celery dipped in Chachie’s Peach and Mango Salsa, fruit! (whatever is in season; I’m an equal opportunity fruit and veg eater!), plain, non-fat yogurt, homemade smoothies,… basically, most of the stuff I eat is cheap. If it’s expensive, I wait until it goes on sale and then stock up. Bargain Hunting anyone?

Frozen spinach is pretty inexpensive..especially compared to how much FRESH spinach you have to use to get the same amount sauteed. It’d be awesome to have a list of cheap health foods and recipes for using them. now THAT would be a great cookbook!

I’d buy two copies of the green monster cookbook, keep one and give one to my sister!

I like sunflower seeds, those are cheap. And low fat sour cream or cottage cheeze with 4-5 crakers (1,80$ for a box of 40). Homemade hummus (otherwise it’s too expensive) and carrotts. Any fruits are that in season, like apples, pears, oranges.

I love alot of what people have already mentioned but I would add one other thing. Cucumbers sliced up like chips. I dip them in hummus, have them on the sides of my sandwich at lunch or just by themselves. Some people may not be a fan but I find it works as a great crunchy lowcal alternative. Bell Peppers, Organic Bananas and kiwi are also fav’s. Lara and Luna bars here are usually .99 or 1.29 per bar so that is helpful to :)

Ok, I’m a year late to the party, but I love coconut extract in smoothies and banana soft serve…all the flavor none of the fat. I’d just rather get my fat from nuts or nut butters, seeds, avacados, and olives rather than oils.